Thomas Jefferson: life, ideas and books

Life

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 at Shadwell in the Virginia colony and became a lawyer. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, in the Second Continental Congress, where he was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and as governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781. He was U.S. Minister to France from 1785 to 1789, the first Secretary of State from 1790 to 1793 and vice president under John Adams from 1797 to 1801.

With James Madison he founded the Democratic-Republican Party in opposition to Hamilton's Federalists. He was elected the third president in 1800 and served two terms, from 1801 to 1809, a period that included the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. He died at Monticello on July 4, 1826. He was a lifelong slaveholder, and his record on slavery is a central and contested part of his legacy.

Ideas

Jefferson held that people possess natural rights, that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed and that governments can be altered when they destroy those ends. He favoured limited government, a strict reading of the Constitution's enumerated powers, local self-rule and a society of independent farmers. He championed religious freedom and the separation of church and state, and he drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

Major works

• The Declaration of Independence (1776).
• Notes on the State of Virginia (1785).
• The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786).
• A Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1801).

Why conservatives read him

Jefferson's insistence on consent, rights and limits on federal power is a touchstone for conservatives and libertarians arguing from the founding. His writing on federalism, free exchange of ideas and religious liberty remains central to debates about the reach of Washington. Readers also confront the tension between his ideals and his conduct, a reminder to read the Founders critically.